ATHENS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2020) US State Secretary Mike Pompeo and the EU extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council support Greece in its Mediterranean row with Ankara, while the list of sanctions requested by Athens from EU institutions is being worked out, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Pompeo and Dendias met in Vienna to discus diplomatic strategies to reduce tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.
"I stressed to Mr. Pompeo, as well as to my European counterparts, that Turkey was the only one to blame for the escalation of tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, and that it should immediately leave the Greek continental shelf. This is an unavoidable condition for us to de-escalate the situation. This position is shared by all my counterparts, and this position was confirmed by the current extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council," Dendias said, as quoted by a statement of the Greek Foreign Ministry.
The foreign minister praised the "condemnation of Turkey's illegal behavior" and the support expressed by the European Union and the United States to Greece and Cyprus.
"The list of sanctions that we have requested from the EU bodies is being compiled. This will be the subject of our next discussion in Berlin at the end of the month. Our goal is to get a ready instrument in the hands of the European Union to use in case of necessity. A tool that will put Turkey back on the path of legitimacy and the international law," Dendias added.
Tensions between Ankara and Athens increased again earlier in August, after Greece and Egypt signed a maritime deal on an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the eastern Mediterranean. Ankara then slammed the agreement as "null and void," saying that Athens and Cairo share no sea border, and claimed that the area of the EEZ was in fact located on Turkey's continental shelf. The Greece-Egypt deal prompted Turkey to resume seismic research in the eastern Mediterranean.
